The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects (Manga): Tales of Blue Dias and the Onikin Alna

After decades of war, Dias returns home as a hero and is rewarded with his own domain. When he arrives at his new lands, however, they turn out to be little more than endless grassy plains without even a single subject. Literally put out to pasture, Dias is stumped as to how to live any life other than a soldier’s. But when a horned girl named Alna crosses his path, Dias takes his first steps to being the lord of a not-so-empty frontier.

Dias is getting used to life on the plains with his new wife—er, fiancée—Alna, and they even have actual subjects now: Dias’s old war buddy Klaus, and a group of refugees fleeing a civil uprising in the neighboring Kasdesk domain. Dias is desperate to raise the population in Nezrose without resorting to slavery, but he’s about to get a visit from none other than the lord of the Kasdesk domain himself, an infamous womanizer always accompanied by a harem of slaves. Dias will soon learn that as on the battlefield, politics and diplomacy is all about seeing who’s friend or foe.

With the Nezrose Domain expanding, Dias realizes that he needs to prepare for winter, which means a more stable and self-sufficient food supply. He decides to try his hand at cultivating farmland, but he’s about to find out that nothing grows on the grassy plains except for, well, grass. Unbeknownst to Dias, however, some kind of force is at work upon the soil, and the twins Senai and Ayhan hold the key to making the land fertile once more.

Dias’s attempts at farming are finally paying off (thanks to Senai and Ayhan’s secret forestkin magic!) but he won’t be able to rest on his laurels just yet. The village needs to work out a more effective form of governance; meanwhile, the dogkin arrive with a literally monstrous surprise in tow. And outside the Nezrose domain lurks a burgeoning threat: a vengeful Princess Diane dreaming of conquest. Oh, and in the midst of all this, guard captain Klaus falls in love!

The war with Princess Diane has come to a surprising end, and peace has returned to Nezrose. Still, a domain lord’s work is never done, and Dias and Alna must turn their attention to more mundane but equally pressing challenges. First, their growing economy presents a host of issues heralded by the arrival of a new yet oddly familiar merchant. Next, Dias has to figure out how to deal with the unintended consequences of his generosity to the dogkin. Finally, Dias faces his greatest challenge ever: a big-time wedding!

Iluk welcomes Dias’s friends—and a new herd of baars! This thrusts Francis into a battle for leadership over the village baars; does he have the chops to beat his new rival? On top of that, Alna’s brother Zorg has returned to rescue his little sister, convinced that she’s been forced to marry the despicable and dastardly new domain lord. Can Dias clear the air (and stop his wife from murdering her brother) in time to thwart a dangerous threat looming over the village?

When Dias is hit hard by a high fever, it looks like he’ll be out of action for months…that is, until the twins nurse him back to health with the help of a mysterious herb. Is it the sanjivani of legend? But Dias has no time to think about it once Eldan arrives with news that will impact the future of Iluk Village and maybe even the entire Kingdom of Sanserife! And it couldn’t happen at a worse time–as summer fades into autumn, the inhabitants of the grasslands must prepare for a long, harsh winter.

Iluk Village’s winter prep is steadily taking shape. The hunting and foraging is going well, the firewood stockpile is growing, and Ellie is making warm winter clothing for everyone. But Grandma Maya prophesizes hardships on the horizon in the form of inclement weather and invading monsters. Dias rises to the challenge undaunted, but things get complicated when the pregnant Francoise and dogkin mothers finally go into labor. Has this battle-hardened warrior finally met his match?!

When a trip to the forest leads to a meeting with a mysterious cavekin, Iluk Village suddenly finds itself with three new cavekin residents! The family of blacksmiths decides to join Dias to fulfill an ancient promise and immediately starts on building a furnace. But what good is a furnace without the magic stones to fuel it? To rectify this oversight, the cavekin and Dias embark on a hunting expedition into dangerous monster territory!

When two starving wild baars arrive in Iluk asking for food, Dias’s newly appointed civil servant, Hubert, proposes a deal:  food and shelter in return for wool. This arrangement proves even more successful than expected, so Hubert decides it’s high time for Iluk to make its first forays into dedicated trade with Mahati. But while Ellie is away bartering, a deadly flame dragon is spotted heading for Iluk! Dias, the onikin, and the residents of Iluk must prepare for battle with what may be their most formidable foe to date!

Iluk Village gets itself a new resident in the form of Sahhi, a falconkin hunter looking to slay a dragon for his family’s honor. It also sees an influx of baar residents, inspiring Uncle Ben to start thinking more seriously about the temple he longs to build. At the same time, Hubert decides it’s time Dias expanded his domain to better secure a vital salt supply. Easier said than done! The nearby salt plains are protected by a very strange power eerily similar to that of Dias’s battle-ax…

A blizzard hits Iluk, forcing everybody to stay indoors while it runs its course. The twins, bored out of their minds, demand Dias entertain them with a story. Dias thus regales them with a tale from the war, a tale that—unbeknownst to the man himself—has become legend. It is an epic of battles and strategy, of good versus evil, and of a small, unassuming hamlet grown into the famed “Golden Lowlands” with more than a little help from Dias himself.